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STEM Career Aspirations in Black, Hispanic, and White Ninth-grade Students

– There were significant race by gender differences in students’ education and STEM occupational plans.
– Race and gender differences exsist in perceived cost utility and efficacy of education and occupation outcomes.
– Depending on the definition of STEM careers operationalized in the analysis, variation can be observed in the impact of gender, while the role of the expectancy-value constructs remains largely consistent across multiple definitions of STEM careers.
– While expectancy-value constructs such as utility, interest, and attainment value are significantly related to the STEM career plans of White students, fewer significant relationships between expectancy-value constructs and the STEM career plans of Black and Hispanic students were identified.

The Impact of College- and University-run High School Summer Programs on Students’ End of High School STEM Career Aspirations

Descriptive statistics:
– Students of color were more heavily represented among high school summer program participants, relative to their counterparts in the control group.
– There was no statistically significant difference in parents with four-year college degrees between participants and nonparticipants.
– Students who participated in a high school STEM summer program were significantly more likely to have STEM tutoring, compared with nonparticipants.
– On average, summer program participants reported significantly higher SAT mathematics scores and took more mathematics courses than nonparticipants.
– Students who participated in a high school STEM summer program were more likely to have STEM career aspirations at both the beginning and end of high school.

Logistic Regressions:
– Students who reported STEM career aspirations at the beginning of high school had much greater odds of reporting STEM aspirations at the end of high school relative to their peers who did not.
– Males had 2.2 times greater odds of reporting end of high school STEM career  aspirations relative to their female counterparts.
– The number of mathematics courses a student completed in high school was also a significant predictor of end of high school STEM career aspirations. A one course increase was associated with 1.2 times greater odds of reporting end of high school STEM career aspirations.
– Students’ SAT math scores were also statistically significant. A 100 point increase in SAT mathematics score was associated with a 26% increase in the odds of reporting end of high school STEM career aspirations.
– Students who participated in a high school STEM summer program had 1.4 times the odds of indicating end of high school STEM career aspirations relative to those who did not participate in a summer program
– Students who participated in a high school summer program that showed them the real-life relevance of STEM had odds that were 1.8 times those of students who did not participate in a program.
– Students who indicated that they participated in a summer program that did not show them the real-life relevance of STEM were statistically no different from students who did not participate in a program at all in terms of their end of high school STEM aspirations.
– There were no statistically significant interaction terms.

The Relationship of STEM Attitudes and Career Interest

-The authors findings reinforce prior research that students across key demographic factors perceive biological/clinical and physical science career paths differently, resulting in two career clusters.
-The relationship of mathematics attitudes to career
interest varied by STEM career cluster.
-Findings were supportive of the conclusion that students’ attitudes towards STEM careers are not static over their primary and
secondary grades, stabilizing and leveling during their secondary years.
-Gender showed significantly different interest levels for the two career clusters: males higher for physical sciences and females higher for biological/clinical sciences.
-Racial/ethnic disparity in STEM career interests can be seen more readily in physical sciences and engineering than in the biological sciences.
-The authors’ work reinforces findings that students, as young as elementary grades, are forming attitudinal associations between their academic and life experience and future STEM careers.

An Exploration into the Potential Career Effects from Middle and High School Mathematics Experiences: A Mixed Methods Investigation into STEM Career Choice

– Lower levels of mathematics anxiety, higher levels of mathematics courses completed in high school, positive teacher experiences, and multiple instances of exposure to STEM fields while in middle and high school increased the likelihood that students would choose a STEM major.
– Lower levels of mathematics anxiety and being placed into higher-ability mathematics courses in middle and high school correlated with higher levels of mathematics self-efficacy.
– Higher levels of mathematics self-efficacy in middle and high school led to increased instances of pursuing a STEM career.
– Students enrolled in at least Calculus I while in high school were significantly more likely to choose a STEM major in college.
– Interviews revealed a larger percentage of STEM majors indicating positive mathematics teacher experiences than non-STEM majors.

Empowering Teachers to Raise Career Awareness in Computing: Lessons Learned

This study aims to provide activities to motivate teachers to use technology in their classrooms and encourage students to pursue a STEM related field, Computer Science in particular.

Collective Effects of Individual, Behavioral, and Contextual Factors on High School Students’ Future STEM Career Plans

1. What are the impacts of school and out-of-school-related activities on students’
intention to pursue a STEM degree?
2. What are the impacts of both teacher and parental educational expectations on
students’ intentions to pursue a STEM degree?
3. What are the impacts of a students’ self-efficacy in math and science and college
expectations on the likelihood of pursuing a STEM degree?
4. What are the impacts of interaction effects between individual, environment, and
behavior on students’ likelihood of pursuing a STEM degree?

A Path Analysis of Student Interest in STEM, with Specific Reference to Qatari Students

(1) What factors influence students’ interest in STEM fields of study or work? (2) Are there any significant differences in students’ responses with respect to their gender? (3) Are there any significant differences in students’ responses with respect to their grade level?

Gender Differences in STEM Undergraduates' Vocational Interests: People-thing Orientation and Goal Affordances

This study addressed why women have greater representation in some STEM fields compared to others by linking two theoretical approaches, people-thing orientation and role congruity theory, which emphasizes occupation goal affordances associated with traditionally feminine and masculine roles. Research questions: 1) How do men and women in different majors compare on PO and TO? 2) How are college students’ gender and major choices related to interest in occupations that differ in people and thing characteristics? 3) How are communal and agentic goal affordances associated with occupations that vary in their involvement with people and things? 4) How do students’ PTO and perceptions of occupation goal affordances combine to predict interest in different occupations?

Student perceptions of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) content and careers

1) Are STEM dispositions of high school science and mathematics students more similar to those of their generational peers or those of STEM professionals? 2) Are STEM dispositions or career interests different for disaggregation attributes such as gender, year in the academy, size of school, or ethnicity? 3) What are the primary influences reported by academy students for their interest in STEM careers?

Friendship Groups, Personal Motivation, and Gender in Relation to High School Students’ STEM Career Interest

Friendship group characteristics, motivation, and gender were investigated in relation to adolescents’ science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career interest. First, the authors investigated the extent to which personal motivation and friendship group STEM climate predicted adolescents’ STEM career interest after controlling for gender and other background factors. They hypothesized that the effects of these variables would be domain-specific, such that the friendship group’s STEM climate and students’ sci-ence motivation would predict STEM career interest after controlling for the friendship group’s English climate and students’ English motivation. Finally, they investigated possible moderation effects.